Comments on: Why don't we "play bowling"?

Question: Why don't we "play bowling"?

keep it tight — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:46:19 -0800

Why is it that we say that we "play football", "play baseball", "play hockey", etc... But we "go bowling", or "go biking"?

By: shepd

shepd — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:51:47 -0800

...because bowling and biking are verbs? :-)

By: Alison

Alison — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:51:49 -0800

Baseball, hockey and football are all nouns.

Bowling and biking are in their gerund forms because they can be used as verbs.

By: Alison

Alison — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:11:32 -0800

Jinx!

Seriously, play tends to shift in semantic meaning when a gerund is attached. Compare "play fishing" with "go fishing". The first sounds like it is describing the action of pretending to go fishing rather than actually fishing. However, I doubt that this is a case of suppletion and 'to go x-ing' probably appeared in the English language before 'to play [noun]'. (Anyone have access to the OED?) 'To go' lacks a consistent argument structure for taking on an accusative noun phrase. However, there are phrases like 'to go nuts', but they tend to be idiomatic.

By: attercoppe

attercoppe — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:27:39 -0800

Football, baseball, and hockey are games (as well as sports), bowling and biking are activities (and sports?) but not considered games. You play poker, you go sightseeing. You play hide and seek, you go driving. You play drinking games, you go drinking.

By: sbutler

sbutler — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:28:27 -0800

In addition to what Alison and shepd have said, it could also be that you "play" with others. Bowling and biking are somewhat solitary things.

(and yes, Alison, I have access to the OED, but I'm not sure what you want exactly)

By: Alison

Alison — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:51:29 -0800

*correction: I meant to say 'blocking' instead of 'suppletion' above

Thanks sbutler! I have access at work, but not at home. I just wanted to see if 'go [verb]-ing' entered the English language before 'play [verb]-ing'. With blocking whatever enters the language first and is used often enough usually wins. This explains why we still have irregular verbs; we use them so often that they don't go away.

By: ryanhealy

ryanhealy — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:06:53 -0800

Do you golf or do you play golf?

I've done both.

By: RustyBrooks

RustyBrooks — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:08:31 -0800

Yeah, but you go golfing, not play golfing (going along with the gerund stuff above)

By: wilful

wilful — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:20:38 -0800

Nobody golfs grammatically

By: johannes

johannes — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:28:39 -0800

Probably the same reason we take a walk (where are we taking it?)

By: sbutler

sbutler — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:50:34 -0800

Sorry Alison, but the "go" entry is way to large for me to sort through.

By: nadawi

nadawi — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:59:02 -0800

A french friend of mine asks if I want "play bowling".

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:03:21 -0800

I think golfing is a good exception that proves the rule, because it's an activity that is both solitary and competitive, so it tends to have both forms. Though usually I think "play golf" is a more generic term -- i.e. "Do you play golf?" vs. "Did you go golfing?"

Of course, bowling has some of the same qualities, but the non-gerund form does not require a helper verb -- it's just "bowl". And I think "Do you golf?" is even more common than "play golf". That's probably true for most solitary sports -- jog, lift, ski, climb, dive ...

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:04:51 -0800

Gee, haven't any of you ever played 10-pins? When I go bowling, that's what I do, every time. Of course, I grew up doing this in an alley, whereas nowadays, folks are more fancy, so they do it at a lane.

By: SuperNova

SuperNova — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:58:11 -0800

I think it's got to be the gerund thing. The reason you don't "play bowl" is because the game is named "bowling" not "bowl". (The alternate name "10-pins" proves that you can "play" bowling, as long as you don't use the gerund to do it.)

Similarly, you can go shopping -- alone or with friends, as an activity or as a game (Supermarket Sweep?) -- because of the "ing".

In the case of baseball, football, etc., the name of the sport is the direct object of "play" -- what is being played. The "go ___ing" situation, I guess, is just something idiomatic that we do with certain words.

As for "golf" -- it's a verb that happens to be the name of the game, and its gerund is another name for the activity. Ditto all the others (jog, climb, etc.). (Golf is unique among those in that you can also "play" it. Go golfing, play golf, or just golf.) I doubt their solitary nature is the reason for this, and I don't know why, linguistically, that would be the case; maybe someone else can help there.

By: Guy Smiley

Guy Smiley — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 23:03:41 -0800

The French jouer à (play to) sports and games, but they jouer de (play of) musical instruments.

Crazy, n'est-ce pas?

By: Pericles

Pericles — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 01:03:26 -0800

Thai speakers "play" all games. They also "play internet" rather than use the internet. But then they have the same word for "work" and "party", so evidently can't be trusted to take things seriously.